Joel Embiid describes how much Caleb Martin hates the Celtics

Celtics

“He hates them as much as I do, so I guess I’ll take it”

Caleb Martin has been a thorn in the Celtics’ side for a while, and his performance on Wednesday evening helped the 76ers hand the Celtics a 118-114 Christmas Day defeat.

The 6-foot-5 guard drilled seven threes, many of them open, as Philadelphia withstood Boston’s comeback attempt and hung on for a 118-114 win.

“That was the gameplan. So we [just] stuck to the gameplan, we trusted the gameplan,” Jaylen Brown said. “Martin hit, what seven threes tonight? That’s tough. He’s done that before to us in the past, but going into it we felt comfortable letting him take all them shots and he knocked them down tonight.”

Before he joined the Sixers, Martin was a key member of the 2023 Miami Heat that eliminated the Celtics in seven games in the Eastern Conference Finals. Martin shot 60 percent from the field that series, including 48.9 percent from 3-point range.

His 19.3 points per game were second behind Jimmy Butler for Miami that series.

“He’s playing against Boston,” Embiid said with a shrug while asked about Martin’s career-high seven 3-pointers on Christmas. “He hates them as much as I do, so I guess I’ll take it. No, but it was great. I like when he’s not thinking about it and tonight, he was just not thinking about it. Seeing every time he has the ball, shoot or drive and we see he made his shots. We need him to keep doing that and keep building our confidence.”

Tyrese Maxey led all scorers with a 33-point, 12-assist double-double. Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said the Celtics could have used better effort on the defensive end to slow Maxey down. It’s about taking away some of his tendencies and taking pride in the individual challenge of guarding him, which will result in better team defense, he said.

When asked about the decision to let Martin shoot despite knowing his history of heating up against the Celtics, Mazzulla answered with a question about help defense.

“Who do you help off of? He made big-time shots but if you want to slow Maxey and Embiid down you have to bring the game to someone. You have to have good shift activity. Out of the nine threes he shot, I’ll have to go back and look at how many were contested.

“But that’s the catch-22,” Mazzulla added. “Good teams who are shooting the ball well, they put you in a tough spot. That’s why it’s important to take away the tendencies on a guy’s right-hand drive, take away the transition, don’t turn the ball over, get good shots. So when you’re in the situation where you’re not taking care of those details it doesn’t make up for the margin for error and he made shots.”

Khari A. Thompson

Sports Reporter

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.